The embodiments of the present invention relate to electronic messaging systems and, more particularly, to sorting and/or prioritizing electronic messages. Many organizations have become global in nature. Within these global organizations, work groups transcend geographic boundaries. This means that a worker in one part of the world will frequently communicate with a worker in another part of the world. Traditionally, electronic messaging systems such as electronic mail, instant messaging, or the like, have been the vehicle for this sort of communication. As a result, one working within a global organization will routinely receive electronic messages from various users from different parts of the world.
Because of differences in time zone between the recipient of the electronic message and the sender of the electronic message, it may be the case that when the recipient chooses to respond to the received electronic message, the sender is not available. For example, by the time a worker located in the U.S.A. responds to a query, that worker's counterpart in Italy, for example, may have left work and no longer be available. The worker in the U.S.A., by not responding earlier in the day, effectively has lost the opportunity for an actual exchange of information with his or her counterpart in Italy. The worker located in the U.S.A. must send an electronic message in the hopes of receiving a reply the next day.